God fruit

“The more deeply one enters into the experience of the sacred the more one is aware of one’s own personal evil and the destructive forces in society. The fact that one is alive to what is possible for humankind sharpens one’s sense that we are fallen people. The awareness of sin is the inevitable consequence of having met grace... This grace-judgment dynamic reveals that the center of Christian life is repentance. This does not mean that the distinguishing mark of the Christian is breast-beating. Feeling sorry, acknowledging guilt, and prolonging regret may be components of the human condition, but they are not what Jesus means by repentance. Repentance is the response to grace that overcomes the past and opens out to a new future   ― John Shea, A Star at Its Rising: Advent Meditations

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I have no trouble finding evil

It flourishes

Planted in the fertile soul of fear and greed

It blooms, its tendrils

Winding through our souls

Squeezing out compassion,

kindness and generosity

and so

in ways sometimes large

and sometimes small

we fall

our lives bearing bitter fruit

as hate and envy win

and we exclude and horde

as hungers from deep within

cause us to misuse our sexuality

or move us to use and abuse alcohol or drugs

seeking to silence the clamoring voices within

we feel helpless

we are helpless

but there is within us too

the Sacred seed

which,

rooted in repentance

watered by grace

grows

a sacred vine

weaving through the fabric of our soul

growing

choking out evil

striving toward the light

breaking free

spreading its branches wide

bearing good fruit

Compassion, forgiveness

Acceptance, generosity

But above all

Hope

For ourselves, and for those around us

God fruit